Lawyers Want Inmates Spared Handcuffs, Ropes During Hearings

A lawyers’ group is campaigning to end the degrading practice of criminal defendants being hauled into courtrooms placed in handcuffs and with ropes around their waists to stop them from fleeing, Shunsuke Abe reported for Asahi Shimbun.

Photo Insert: The longstanding tradition of roping defendants could undermine the principle of presumption of innocence.

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations produced a dramatized video in which Takeyoshi Ota, vice-chair of its Human Rights Protection Committee, played the role of a judge. The video argued that the longstanding tradition of roping defendants could undermine the principle of presumption of innocence.

“No one wants to be exposed to public scorn like criminals, and their families never hope to see them being pilloried like that,” Ota said.

“We are trying to show in an easy-to-understand manner that attention should be paid to defendants' mental anguish at being placed in such a situation. We are calling on judges to put their imagination to work to find an alternative.”

Prison guards are allowed to apply handcuffs and ropes to defendants for criminal trials to stop them from fleeing. While those accessories have to be removed during trials, defendants conventionally enter and leave courtrooms fully restrained.

In 2014, a defendant refused to appear before the Osaka District Court because he did not want to be seen handcuffed and roped in the courtroom. The case proved to be the catalyst for lawyers pressing to change the custom.

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